Candidate profile: Jim Kee

“This is the nucleus of this area,” District 2 Councilman Jim Kee said, gesturing toward the Family Dollar store, flanked by vacant storefronts on either side in the Bessemer Shopping Center on Phillips Avenue. “25,000 people live around here. This was a very vibrant area at one time. We’re trying to recapture that.”

The new McGirt-Horton Library, which opened a year ago, is the showcase of the shopping center. Kee told me the library is the first “green” building owned by the city. It holds the coveted LEED certification, short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. With a swooping roof design that captures sunlight from the south, the branch library is airy and light. On Thursday, it was bustling with children. No wonder it’s such a source of pride to Kee.

Kee inherited the District 2 seat two years ago from former Councilwoman Goldie Wells. He faces two challengers in this year’s municipal election. A primary on Oct. 11 will narrow the field to two candidates total.

Undoubtedly, the central concern of District 2 residents is whether the city reopens the White Street Landfill, with the related issues of economic development and transportation infrastructure running a close second and third.

Kee has been known for his civility and efforts to work with council members who hold differing viewpoints to achieve common goals. At last Tuesday’s council meeting, no one had any doubt that Mayor Bill Knight, at-large Councilman Danny Thompson, District 4 Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw and District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade had every intention of voting to reopen the landfill.

Kee’s last-ditch appeal to their consciences has been lauded for its eloquence. To make a point, he read from the minutes of a long-past solid waste decision by the Guilford County Commission, on which Rakestraw and Wade served at the time, concerning whether to open a landfill near the town of Oak Ridge. Among those who voted against siting a landfill in Oak Ridge were Rakestraw and Wade.

“I read this to commend Dr. Wade and Ms. Rakestraw for supporting the citizens of Oak Ridge,” Kee said. “But there’s one thing I can’t comprehend: What is the difference between the citizens of Greensboro and the citizens of Oak Ridge?”

On Thursday, Kee said he still holds out hope.

“I expect that the landfill will not open,” he said. “The vote showed different. I’m an eternal optimist. I think eventually one of the four are going to see this is not in the best interest of Greensboro.”

The vote earlier this week was to open Phase III, the only section of the landfill that is currently permitted to received municipal solid waste.

“We’ll use up the capacity and spend more because we won’t have any leverage to negotiate with private companies,” Kee said. “All the savings we are expecting — now we know it’s a maximum of $21 million over seven years — that’s going to evaporate pretty quickly. It’s just not a good business decision, not to mention the negative impact on the citizens of Greensboro. This is a very short-term solution to waste disposal.”

The council also plans to seek permitting from the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources to open phases IV and V to expand the landfill.

“I don’t see DENR ever approving that,” Kee said. “Republic Services went down the same road in Greene County. They spent $1 million on that. I’ve had conversations with Republic Services, and they tell me it’s a futile effort.”

Jobs and economic development was Kee’s major focus when he ran two years ago. He had been open to harnessing solid waste to create jobs by using alternative technology at White Street, but he and many others believe that reopening the landfill will have exactly the opposite effect.

Kee said the East Cone Boulevard corridor has benefited from $85 million in investment in recent years, including new a Wal-Mart Supercenter and Lowe’s home improvement store, and that $40 million in new investment is planned. Developer Dr. Don Linder would like to build a hotel near Wal-Mart, Kee said. That would accommodate families that come to events at the Sportsplex and workers that come in to town for engineering and maintenance purposes for companies situated along US Highway 29.

“Economic development and keeping the landfill closed are absolutely connected,” Kee said. “I don’t know that you would find a major hotel that would want to locate next to a landfill. If it’s several stories high, no one wants to come back after a long day at work when they’re trying to relax and pull the shades back and see a landfill below.”

Kee also argues that the new commercial development along Cone Boulevard, moribund for several years after the closing of Carolina Circle Mall, will be jeopardized if the landfill opens.

“When I used to go to the Carolina Circle Mall, there was a horrendous smell,” Kee said. “You’d almost need a gas mask. If I had a choice about going to a more pleasant mall, I’d certainly want to do that.”

Roadway infrastructure in the district has long been deficient, perhaps a legacy of the clustering of undesirable solid waste and water treatment facilities at the point where North Buffalo Creek drains away from the city, and depressed economic activity as a result of these facilities. Ironically, some city leaders may have shied away from investing in transportation improvements in the area for fear that they would facilitate better access to the landfill and enable it to reopen by mitigating concerns about the burden of truck traffic through residential neighborhoods.

“The roadway system over here is very convoluted and does not function well for traffic flow,” Kee said.

North Buffalo Creek currently splits the district, with the dead-ended East Cone Boulevard to the north and the landfill to the south. Traveling from north to south or vice versa requires a roundabout trip to the west to pick up Summit Avenue or a detour through unincorporated county via Rankin Mill Road.

The long-planned East Cone Boulevard-Nealtown Connector is considered a critical piece of transportation infrastructure.

“It takes eight to 10 minutes from this point to get to Lowe’s and Wal-Mart,” said Kee, gesturing from the meeting room at the library. “If you open up that, it cuts it down to three minutes. We could expand that road to Lee Street.”

The Nealtown Connector could potentially serve as an eastside counterpart to Holden Road, which meets West Cone Boulevard near Battleground Avenue and serves as a major thoroughfare connecting the Friendly Center, Lindley Park, the High Point Road area and neighborhoods clustered around Business 85. Kee pointed out that residents of Irving Park and other neighborhoods would have a convenient route to McLeansville and points east.

“We have to find a way to make that happen,” Kee said. “It’s long overdue. I’ve heard it’s been on the books for 20 years.”

Financing the project would require a referendum to sell bonds. Kee said the city is currently obtaining property rights.

“We are cautious right now in terms of selling bonds,” he said. “The economy is not the best. It’s something we have to look at.”

Kee would also like the city to consider developing an economic development policy that would provide incentives to support small businesses. He noted that the city owns the Bessemer Shopping Center, whose sole tenant at the moment is Family Dollar.

“We’re losing money as the landlord,” Kee said. “We need to get some other tenants.”

Winn-Dixie formerly anchored the shopping center, and the city has been actively seeking another grocery store to serve the community.

“I can’t give you the name, but hopefully I’ll be able to announce that in the next two weeks,” Kee said.

Among Kee’s challengers, Dan Fischer has focused on his own personal merits rather than contrasting himself with the incumbent. The candidacy of C. Bradley Hunt II, on the other hand, appears to be a direct challenge to Kee’s record and style of service.

Hunt is the political chair of the Greensboro NAACP, and a close associate of its president, the Rev. Cardes Brown. Hunt willingly submitted himself to arrest last year by briefly taking over the dais with a group called Spirit of the Sit-In Movement during recess at a city council meeting last year to call attention to alleged corruption in the Greensboro Police Department.

“I think he’s being promoted to run by groups like Rev. Brown’s and Rev. [Nelson] Johnson’s,” Kee said. “I don’t think they feel their needs are being addressed.

“I have met with Rev. Brown on numerous occasions,” Kee continued. “The focal point is always corruption in the police department. I have listened and tried to respond. Each time you look at a report, like the Buracker Report, it looks like we have a good police department. We had some problems in the past, but I think they’re just that — in the past. Chief Bellamy was a good chief. Crime went down under his watch, and that’s what you want from a police department. Chief Miller is a bright man, and officers tell me he’s fair. I’ve found him to be a very caring man. I can use the same attributes to describe our city manager.”

Kee suggested that Hunt and his backers are out of touch with the interests of constituents in District 2.

“Extremists, whether it be on the left or the right, whether it be from the community or council, can never be good for citizens because extremists represent a small sector, never the mainstream,” Kee said. “You have to represent the mainstream population if you’re going to be a good leader.”